British tourist killed near Eilat

August 14, 1997 9:00am

JERUSALEM, Aug. 13 (JTA) — A massive police search was launched this week in southern Israel for a driver who killed a British hitchhiker and wounded another after picking them up near Eilat. Jeffrey Hunter, 22, was allegedly shot dead by the driver after he drove the couple about 75 miles. Hunter’s girlfriend, Charlotte Gibb, was moderately wounded. Israeli police were considering the possibility that the gunman, whose motives were unknown, had fled to Egypt. The incident was the second involving British tourists in the past month. Several British teen-agers were injured three weeks ago when a car driven by an Israeli Arab crashed into them. The driver then chased them with a sword. Meanwhile, police said a man was lightly wounded in the neck in an apparent stabbing attack near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. According to initial reports, Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said the victim appeared to be a tourist and the attackers two Arabs.